Maltibore

Yesterday was our family day in Baltimore. Claire had her heart check-up with her cardiologist, so we made a day of it again. Full day, but really fun.

Here we are at the top of the parking garage at Johns Hopkins. Actually will probably be the last time we park in this garage-- the new Children's hospital part will be completed in April, so we'll be in a different building next time. Next appt-- Nov 13, 2013. :)

This is a beautiful view of the city-- and, if you look really closely, you can see a helicopter in the upper left of the pic. We saw several. It was a GORGEOUS day. Perfect day for our excursion.



While Claire and I did all the medical stuff, Chad and the other kids hung out in the Outpatient Center. Looks here like Micah was about to fall from the 7th floor!






We arrived at 10:30am, and left around 1pm. Girls had books along, and there are some toys/fish in the waiting room. Brought some food.






Claire was excited and a little nervous about the day. She wasn't very happy about the first blood pressure check or about the removal of the stickers after the EKG, but otherwise she was OK with everything. She enjoyed watching the Little Mermaid video while they did the echo-- they have the room dark and a warming pad on the bed so it's VERY comfortable. After the technician finished the echo, she did several BP checks on Claire's arm and leg, and Claire hardly even noticed that was happening.

Doctor's report-- everything looks super! She still has a slight narrowing of one valve and a leak in another... both things they've known about all along but decided they weren't worth fixing... both things that are "trivial", according to Dr. Thompson. The repair they did on her aorta still looks great, and he sees no reason why it should ever have a problem. Claire gave Dr. Thompson a picture she had drawn, and he really enjoyed it.




We went to the Inner Harbor for the afternoon. Claire LOVED the harbor. Kept commenting on how beautiful it was and wished she could live there, etc.









The weird erector set thing above is in front of the Science Center, where we spent maybe 3 hours. Fun place, and better because we almost had it to ourselves.











See how scared Claire and Micah are??















This was Micah's favorite part of the Science Center-- the ball rolling thing that you got to help control, and the balls made music as they hit bells and a xylophone, etc.

Claire said her favorite part was the planetarium. Perfect timing because just last week we had been talking about finding different constellations. This planetarium show was all about identifying the main constellations and planets we see.

This thing was fascinating-- I don't know if you can tell very well in the pic, but Katie's on one side and I'm on the other side of the glass. Depending on how you adjust the light, it acts as a mirror or a window... you can adjust it slowly to combine your faces. So, here, Katie is checking out how she'd look with my glasses and hair.

In this one, I'm checking out how I'd look with Katie's hair, sweatshirt, and earrings. I think I may get my ears pierced.

Claire tried out this comfy bed of nails.

Sorry to say, Jenna lost a hand to one of the dinosaurs there. There goes her piano playing future...



I think Jenna said her favorite part was the harp without strings-- used laser beams instead. And Katie's favorite part might have been the beach ball that was held above a blower by the changes in air pressure.

Micah is at a really great age to enjoy something like this. Plus, he's potty trained, so the rest of us enjoyed it, too! :) All day, even with 2 hours in the car each way, he stayed dry! Woo-hoo!

Another interesting fact about Micah on the car ride-- he read his entire Bible from cover to cover on the way to Baltimore. Probably took him more than a half hour. Went page by page (thick book, too), talking about each page. The other day when he was "reading" it, he picked out the word "Mommy", but mostly he just talks about the pics.

We saw the moon at dusk over the harbor, as we were leaving to get back to our van. Funny, that
parking garage didn't want to let us leave. We had a little trouble finding our way out and figuring out where to pay, etc. But, did they get our $20? Yes, they did. Man, I think for my retirement, I'm going to own a couple parking garages in Baltimore!

On the way home, we stopped at a Burger King, besides our other food, we had some free cones and a free chicken sandwich, so the meal was all the better. Made it home by 8:30 and everyone was very tired.